Dartmouth and Harvard sit atop the NIRA D-I Standings and as fate would have it, those two teams play each other.

The Power Ratings for NIRA use a mathematical formula taking into account offensive strength, defensive strength, and strength of schedule, and they are designed to rank teams even if you have a division where teams don't play everyone else. Of course, if you win all of your games, that really helps. Dartmouth has done that so far and it 4-0, while Harvard has won three and added a tie. After that you have four teams with vaguely similar records. 

Quinnipiac is 2-0-2; West Point is 2-1; Brown is 2-1-1; Queens is 2-2. That's the order they stand in the Power Ratings, but Quinnipiac, Army, and Brown have virtually the same Power Rating number. Things could change easily. At 1-3 and 7th, Sacred heart is not out of it. The Pioneers play a cross-divisional game against Davenport this weekend, but after that games against Navy and Quinnipiac could make a massive change in the Power Ratings.

This weekend, Queens at Army is the big game for those teams chasing for a semifinal spot. Can West Point follow up on their 26-20 win over Sacred Heart? If they do, they could porentially overtake Quinnipiac for 3rd.

Of course, THE big game is Dartmouth at Harvard. Harvard is coming off a victory over Brown by the score of 18-12. Two tries from Josephine Mignone paced the Crimson to that crucial win. But Dartmouth is coming off a week off and has been in impressive form.

The top two D-II teams in NIRA are playing across divisional borders, ith Sacred Heart at Davenport and AIC at Quinnipiac. These are good tests for the teams even if they don't count in the Power Ratings standings.